matt40k

@Michael Phew, started doubting myself there!

Don't think I'd rule Azure out - can't remember the last time I needed to Console into a server - especially when its comes a DC. If you got corruption, you'd just restore from backup. @localzuk - I think the choice will be political. Depending who the other school(s) are and how willing they are to trust and work with you. Bit pointless creating a single cross school forest if they don't want to give you full control over their network. Still I think the single forest with child domains for each school is the way to go - if they don't trust you \ want to work - each enter half the password for the forest top-level domain administrator password ( ) and do everything at the local child domain. Don't you mean MAT.pri (Root/parent domain) school1.MAT.pri (child domain) school2.MAT.pri (child domain) school3.MAT.pri (child domain)

Well from a procurement side its easier, you don't have find the large pot of money for starters - even if you have already purchased the licenses you generally get hit by a consultancy bill. Cloud providers often absorb it as they want your business. From a end user point of view it doesn't matter. Whatever system you use, it'll change, the same general process remains. You still take a register, submit a census return. From an actual migration point of view, they do all the hard work. There is actually a pretty good example on YouTube of a school switching and the supplier migrating them over the weekend already for them to go live on the Monday.

I assume your not actually going to migrate till the end of the school year? Capita should be able to give you a list of what can and cannot be migrated - if anyone says "everything" then your probability taking to a sales person and they're talking rubbish, you'll always have some manual work and you'll want a clear "them" and "us" To-Do list - Capita is normally pretty good at doing this. As for cost - SIMS is like buying a house, you get whacked with a giant bill then the on-going costs are low - however it's an old house and to really get the best out of it you need to spend more money - like double glazing (parental engagement - inTouch\SchoolComms etc). Cloud based is more like renting - its easier to move, everything is (normally) included, its mainly smaller houses (primary schools)

Did you know the SOLUS3 agent stops SOLUS3\SIMSLOAD from working. (Sorry, couldn't resist, its Friday after all - echo... echo... echo...)

Download 2.3.33 - https://simsbulkimport.uk/download

What version? Can you send me the log file? What is the file type? Xlsx ideally

Unlimited is a lie. If they don't impose disc space limits, they'll have transfer limit. I know a company that pays peanuts for a offsite backup, but they'll pay an absolute fortune if they actually need to recover anything - still they use it as a tertiary backup/disaster recovery which would only be used if the company goes up in flames and most likely the insurance would be paying for. Also guys, dont forget to test whatever backup you setup. A backup is only a backup if you can restore it otherwise its a waste of money, cheap shouldn't be the main factor. It isnt a tick box exercise.

How much do you spend on SECURUS? I think that's the reason why there is no cut and dry policy. Some schools I think its required, others I think it would be a waste of money. I think for @abillybob he just needs to tick the web filtering option on the AV and check the logs rather then throwing tech at it. RE: work only - If overlooking a member of staff checking their bank accounts or printing a few A4 pages gets them engaged, I think its worth it. Its just, at the other end of the spectrum, you've got folks like Netflix - a tech company - saying their biggest security hole isn't someone hacking them, its from their own staff going on some hacked\crooked website. So no, don't think its overkill.

Ah k, just use av web logs, job done. If you find something, then look at securus or something like you would for kids - just get them to want to do it rather then being overly enthusiastic

You'll be surprised how many people are caught out by caches. Anyway, i dont see this as a tech problem more of a policy - tech wise this is solve in oh so many ways. You've solved it for the pupils. Like @mrwoberts said, it makes sense to extend it, its just its a policy thing and you cant assume folks are as advanced policy wise as @localzuk. Tech is easy, procedures are hard

Re logs and monitoring - if a tree falls... There are logs already. You have the internet history, you have av which will normally have http scanning, again more logs, you have backup logs of any files they save as they get saved to the network. You clearly have policy sorted, by the sounds of a random question they have asked in the original post, they dont - or its not as advanced as yours

Monitoring students is one thing. That's a must. But monitoring the staff? That's a whole heap of chaos if not done correctly. That's my issue. If you setup something, who monitors you? Your basically saying hey, I don't trust you. I think @mrwoberts worded it better, but you shouldn't be throwing tech a policy problem. If you need to investigate something, you own the device, you can just grab that device and investigate. Tech isn't the problem. Did that go via HR? This wasn't the classic school ground argument type thing. Bit of contradiction here - when talking about BYOD I thought we where talking about true BYOD where you have no control over device. You're talking about managed devices where you can - say - wipe them? Or push out software? Or are you just talking about wifi managed?

There is a different between being able to set something up in the future if a event occurs (both legally and technically) and actually proactivity doing something. One sits nicely in the law the other breaks the "innocent until proven guilty" If you do proactivity monitor staff without cause - then I guess we know where you stand with regards to the NSA\GCHQ etc.

That's up there with firing all the staff and asking them to come back and work for free. BYOD will cause more problems. You'll find staff will want more money, which has tax implications like a company car. You then have to treat them has hostile - as you can't control AV etc on them. Everything has to be cross platform - so you'll waste you time converting stuff and trying to debug it - just because its web based doesn't mean its cross platform, something that works in IE or Firefox doesn't mean it works in Chrome. Then still have the problem of well my laptop has a virus and I can't change my wallpaper (so I can't actually use it as I can't project that photo on the projector to a class full of kids) - so you need to fix my laptop, you'll end up having to recommend kit - so what's the difference between BYOD and school owned again? - or worse, they buy there own support then why do they need a IT tech? Cause you just provide a internet connection... oh wait, the ISP does that...

I found they throw the laptop back at you if your AUP says your monitor them - even off prem

Yer, ditto. If someone here suspects something, it goes via HR. If you're going to do it get HR involved. The tech is easy, its the policy that is the trouble. If you don't get the policy bit right your wasting your time. Give you an example, if you don't have the policy right, a teacher could use their works laptop to upload their homemade porn to some file sharing site - which the newspapers would have a field day with - but if the school did something they would be in trouble for breach of privacy and you would prob end up getting charged under the computer misuse act for "hacking" or spying on them - pretty hard to get a job in IT with that red mark against you. If it was me, I would say you can't do it. Then let them either get someone who its paid a lot more to deal with it (and the policy side) if they think its broken. If anything DOES actually happen, you'd just involve HR - they can then get the police involved if necessary and pull the logs from the ISP if needed, which is what they'll do anyway, they won't trust your logs as they could be altered. Seriously a can of worms you don't want to open. If you want something to throw back at them, ask the question, ok so I've done it, what will you do with it? So you've found something, what now? You'll tell them off, ok, what happens if they repeat it? How is you calling them out any different then saying it in general in all staff meeting?

Its what they use in Suffolk - they also provide it as a service to Academy outside of Suffolk - Home | Suffolk Schools Choice.

Change log just says added new supplier - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cloud-software-services-and-the-data-protection-act#history A static list on a document seems a little bit silly given the number of cloud providers out there - its good a see some of the major players - but... where are the others?

No. You need to get them from Capita/local support unit (la) otherwise you invalid your support agreement

You stupidly need to get office staff (or anyone who runs the attendance letters) FULL CONTROL over the attend folder - 'Y:\SIMS\attend' The routine is some legacy code they glued into SIMS .net from the days of Windows 98. When is a SIMS report not a sims report? When its an attendance letter... or a built in report (they all use different methods for creating reports)

They should already have the crash dumps - they are signed up and registered with Microsoft so when it crashes and sends a crash report to Microsoft, Capita can log into Microsoft portal and download them, wheither anyone does however - interestingly Microsoft is saying SIMS .net compatible with Windows 10 - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/CompatCenter/ProductDetailsViewer?Type=Software&Name=SIMS&ModelOrVersion=7&Vendor=The+Capita+Group&Locale=1033%2C2057%2C3081%2C4105%2C16393&LastSearchTerm=Capita%2BSIMS&BreadcrumbPath=Capita+SIMS&TempOsid=Windows+10 I would guess they need the DB just to test the fix as it doesn't happen on their training database.

I did a presentation about the evolution of the MIS job. Basically it came from the old days when it was all done by one person - normally the head of maths - but it's evolved beyond a single person. For SIMS, you've got two clear jobs. Network Manager -> SOLUS3 -> Strong technical knowledge responsible for the physical computer network - is techy Data Manager -> System Manager 7 -> Strong "business" knowledge, responsible for the data, understands the "business" processes and requirements - completes stat returns, does data analysis - isn't techy The network manager basically delivers a working computer network - they install the OS and any applications. The Data Manager configures the MIS to meant the schools requirements. The Network manager makes sure the computer works so staff can take a register for example - they don't care what info they enter into the register, just that they can. The Data Manager cares about what is actually entered. The roles are linked, but they are separate - just like myself and my ISP. I don't expect them to do my work just because they provide me with internet. They are equal roles as well - although the data manager needs network manager to deliver a working network, the network manager wouldn't have a job if the data manager didn't exist (as there would be no requirement for a network )

Yup. Unless your LA has a SMTP relay you can use. Guide on Microsoft site that you can setup on the sims server or such - https://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/dn592151(v=exchg.150).aspx

Yes. Still ALOT of "legacy" enterprise who arent mobile - beyond the CIO who uses it to check their email. Even some who are, it still isnt as mainstream, they are still buying desktops or laptops. I still see more laptops/surfaces than ipads/tablets on the train to london